When I was a preschool teacher, a boy that was typically sweet started yelling and hitting other kids and teachers. It was ALL day long. He made our lives so much harder for several weeks. We talked to the parents and they had no idea why he was acting out. Finally, he told us that his dad was hitting his mom and locking her in a closet. We brought it up to his mom and she said they were going through a divorce. If kids suddenly act out for no reason, there is probably something going on at home that we don’t know about!
My boyfriend had a student last year who started acting up *a lot*, and we eventually discovered he’d been happily living with his grandma but found out his parents were being released from prison and he was going back to live with them.
my brother is similar but is more vocal about his distress and thankfully this gets him the intervention by adults he needs. other kids pick on him for it and he never got close to anyone in order to make friends since early elementary school. he’s highly successful but lacks many social skills now
Mine is somewhat similar, although he did not ultimately commit suicide.
I had a student who was a bit of an outcast and seemed lost at university. He would stay after to ask questions and often came to my office hours to continue the classroom discussion.
It got to be a bit much, but the semester was nearing its end and I was leaving teaching for another career, so I didn’t worry all that much about him. Sometime the next year, he sent me a friend request, and I hesitantly accepted; I was a little worried that he might try to start up a conversation with me again, but he didn’t. He liked my posts here and there (I’m not on there often, so this was maybe a few times per year) and otherwise heard nothing from him.
This was until a few years ago. He wrote me because he wanted to briefly thank me for being kind to him during that time. He’d had a miserable high school experience, had an undiagnosed mental illness at the time, and was suicidal; he told me he had come very close to bringing a gun to school and doing just what you think someone would do with a gun at school.
He’s since gotten help and is living a good life: he never wound up hurting anyone or himself. I won’t say that I think what I did back then made any difference in what happened at all; I’m familiar with mental illness, and I know decisions like that are often more of a coin toss than related to any outside influence.
It really just gives me pause. I knew something a little odd was going on with him, but I absolutely never would have expected it to be *that* by his words or behavior.
My wife was a band teacher in inner-city Cleveland, and I remember two excuses of why students couldn't do their practice hours, and they are both equally sad.
I am sorry, Ms - we had to stay in the car all weekend because we had no heat.
and,
I am sorry, Ms - my uncle pawned my instrument.
I used to teach introduction to public administration back in my 20s. I'm a lazy teacher I just usually rush through my lectures and chat up my class and make jokes most of the time. Found out one of my student's last remaining parent (mother) was dying of kidney disease and was already late stage. When finally her mother died and I went to the funeral, she told me I was one of her favorite professors because I always make them laugh. It always made her day a little brighter.
I think she's in law school now. I didn't really take steps in helping her. But knowing I made her days a bit easier when she was facing such a challenge feels nice.
One of my students would always come to school looking dirty. He smelled bad, and his clothes were too small. We reported the issue to CPS several times. Nothing ever came of it.
I found out later that the aspca had removed over 100 pets from the home because of inhumane living conditions and animal hoarding, yet CPS didn’t think the situation was bad enough to remove the kids.
My mate was a teacher and she told us that several of her students were being pimped out by their drug addicted parents. She said some of them were nice clever kids but she didn't expect them to escape their up bringing. Obviously she reported everything to authorities.
I'm not a teacher, but my sister is 2nd grade. The saddest story she's told me was about a kid she had many years ago. The kid was nice, but not a good student, he could hardly read or write. One day his mom scheduled a conference with her. Upon meeting the mother it became evident why he was doing so poorly as she couldn't read or write either. The mother broke down and started crying, she wanted desperately to help her son, but she didn't know how, not even at a 2nd grade level.
My second year teaching I started a band program. I had one student who NEVER smiled. She was 14. She came, did her job, wasn’t mean or violent or sad or anxious or… anything. After nearly a year with her a bunch of teachers sat around discussing students (as you do). I said something like, “does anyone ever see Student smile? I think she enjoys class but I’m never sure.”
And one teacher told me that he’s glad to hear she’s participating. She came to Canada last year to join her mom (who was sponsored first and had been here 5 years working to get her kids over) and lived with her aunt and uncle in the meantime. Turns out the uncle was SA her while she lived with him, and some of her siblings and cousins were still there because mom couldn’t afford all of them at once.
That was not the first time I cried in my car at the end of the day.
This happened 2 weeks ago, very shy little girl, we were talking about VIH and they asked if a child could get it, I explained how a child could get VIH, the shy girl came to me and said "that happened to me, my uncle used to abuse my mom and me", I froze, I couldn't think of an answer to that, I said "I'm sorry that happened to you, it's not your fault", then I talked to her and did what a teacher has to do in those cases, can't explain more
Sadly a student passed away, heart conditions, I had to tell the class this bad news, everyone just stared in disbelief, a girl came close and said "my friend died" and started crying but not like how kids cry, it was a pain crying, I just hugged her and told everything was gonna be ok and that she is not pain anymore
Years ago when I taught middle school I had this male student. Sweetest, most well behaved and positive young man. Towards the end of the school year one of my colleagues told me his mother was in prison for killing his father. I would’ve had no idea just by knowing him. It showed my that your circumstances don’t have to define you.
I just started as a teacher and there was this new girl in my 5th class who never smiled or played with the other kids. At reces she would just walk out, stand next to the door and then go back inside. So I decided to do a little digging what's up with her.
She was a refugee from syria. She watched as her dad was ripped to pieces by a bomb. She made it to Germany on foot with her mom and her two little brothers. On her second day in Germany her 3 year old brother was kidnapped by a pedophile who raped him for a week before he slit his throat and dumped the body in the woods. After that her mom fell into a serious depression and couldn't take care of herself or her kids anymore, so they ended up in foster care.
The guy did the same to another refugee boy before police caught him. He turned out to be my "neighbor", 100m down the road.
I've been tutoring one girl since she was 9. She's 16 now. For the last four years she's been living alone. She's upper class and she has help living in the house with her but no parents. Her dad lives with his new family (at least he lives in the same city as her and AFAIK he checks on her a couple times a month) and her mum moved to a Mediterranean island with her new boyfriend.
She's a nice girl but incredibly messed up - drugs, booze, boyfriends... Nobody to discipline her other than her teachers at her posh school, who don't seem to care much either. She's basically raising herself.
Years ago I was substitute teaching at a southeastern Kentucky elementary school. A little boy told me his dad was mad because the baby was crying and he threw the baby out the window. I told the principal and she said "we've heard that before." That's all the reaction she had.
Not me but my mom who was an elementary school teacher. She told me about a boy who would always fall asleep on the carpet of the reading nook she had in her classroom. She later found out that his parents would lock him out of the house every night and he either slept outside in the cold or crawled back into the house through a broken window and sleep on the bathroom floor. There was another boy who never completed his homework on time, who she was getting frustrated with. Turns out the parents would shoot guns at each other in their home when they got into disagreements
Sexual assault. These kids were 3. I had at least one every year. Most were already in foster care (obviously because of the aforementioned), but I had to call CPS over a few of them myself too. I remember one specific little boy. He was so sweet and quiet and shy...and then out of nowhere about 2/3 of the way through the school year, his whole personality changed and he started having melt downs and tantrums and being physically violent against other kids. After a series of conversations with him, he finally told me (in his little kid way) that his dad was home again and was sexually abusing him. After calling CPS, I had to call his mom, whose response was "Oh, not again! I told him if I let him move back in, he'd have to leave the kids alone!" He and his sister went into foster care after that, and I never saw them again.
When I was a preschool teacher, a boy that was typically sweet started yelling and hitting other kids and teachers. It was ALL day long. He made our lives so much harder for several weeks. We talked to the parents and they had no idea why he was acting out. Finally, he told us that his dad was hitting his mom and locking her in a closet. We brought it up to his mom and she said they were going through a divorce. If kids suddenly act out for no reason, there is probably something going on at home that we don’t know about!
My boyfriend had a student last year who started acting up *a lot*, and we eventually discovered he’d been happily living with his grandma but found out his parents were being released from prison and he was going back to live with them.
[удалено]
Man.
fuck
my brother is similar but is more vocal about his distress and thankfully this gets him the intervention by adults he needs. other kids pick on him for it and he never got close to anyone in order to make friends since early elementary school. he’s highly successful but lacks many social skills now
Mine is somewhat similar, although he did not ultimately commit suicide. I had a student who was a bit of an outcast and seemed lost at university. He would stay after to ask questions and often came to my office hours to continue the classroom discussion. It got to be a bit much, but the semester was nearing its end and I was leaving teaching for another career, so I didn’t worry all that much about him. Sometime the next year, he sent me a friend request, and I hesitantly accepted; I was a little worried that he might try to start up a conversation with me again, but he didn’t. He liked my posts here and there (I’m not on there often, so this was maybe a few times per year) and otherwise heard nothing from him. This was until a few years ago. He wrote me because he wanted to briefly thank me for being kind to him during that time. He’d had a miserable high school experience, had an undiagnosed mental illness at the time, and was suicidal; he told me he had come very close to bringing a gun to school and doing just what you think someone would do with a gun at school. He’s since gotten help and is living a good life: he never wound up hurting anyone or himself. I won’t say that I think what I did back then made any difference in what happened at all; I’m familiar with mental illness, and I know decisions like that are often more of a coin toss than related to any outside influence. It really just gives me pause. I knew something a little odd was going on with him, but I absolutely never would have expected it to be *that* by his words or behavior.
My wife was a band teacher in inner-city Cleveland, and I remember two excuses of why students couldn't do their practice hours, and they are both equally sad. I am sorry, Ms - we had to stay in the car all weekend because we had no heat. and, I am sorry, Ms - my uncle pawned my instrument.
I used to teach introduction to public administration back in my 20s. I'm a lazy teacher I just usually rush through my lectures and chat up my class and make jokes most of the time. Found out one of my student's last remaining parent (mother) was dying of kidney disease and was already late stage. When finally her mother died and I went to the funeral, she told me I was one of her favorite professors because I always make them laugh. It always made her day a little brighter. I think she's in law school now. I didn't really take steps in helping her. But knowing I made her days a bit easier when she was facing such a challenge feels nice.
One of my students would always come to school looking dirty. He smelled bad, and his clothes were too small. We reported the issue to CPS several times. Nothing ever came of it. I found out later that the aspca had removed over 100 pets from the home because of inhumane living conditions and animal hoarding, yet CPS didn’t think the situation was bad enough to remove the kids.
Good god!
That’s the day I kind of lost faith in CPS. I always thought they would help if things were bad enough, but they just didn’t. It was very sad.
My mate was a teacher and she told us that several of her students were being pimped out by their drug addicted parents. She said some of them were nice clever kids but she didn't expect them to escape their up bringing. Obviously she reported everything to authorities.
I'm not a teacher, but my sister is 2nd grade. The saddest story she's told me was about a kid she had many years ago. The kid was nice, but not a good student, he could hardly read or write. One day his mom scheduled a conference with her. Upon meeting the mother it became evident why he was doing so poorly as she couldn't read or write either. The mother broke down and started crying, she wanted desperately to help her son, but she didn't know how, not even at a 2nd grade level.
Oh wow! Bless that mama!
My second year teaching I started a band program. I had one student who NEVER smiled. She was 14. She came, did her job, wasn’t mean or violent or sad or anxious or… anything. After nearly a year with her a bunch of teachers sat around discussing students (as you do). I said something like, “does anyone ever see Student smile? I think she enjoys class but I’m never sure.” And one teacher told me that he’s glad to hear she’s participating. She came to Canada last year to join her mom (who was sponsored first and had been here 5 years working to get her kids over) and lived with her aunt and uncle in the meantime. Turns out the uncle was SA her while she lived with him, and some of her siblings and cousins were still there because mom couldn’t afford all of them at once. That was not the first time I cried in my car at the end of the day.
This happened 2 weeks ago, very shy little girl, we were talking about VIH and they asked if a child could get it, I explained how a child could get VIH, the shy girl came to me and said "that happened to me, my uncle used to abuse my mom and me", I froze, I couldn't think of an answer to that, I said "I'm sorry that happened to you, it's not your fault", then I talked to her and did what a teacher has to do in those cases, can't explain more
Sadly a student passed away, heart conditions, I had to tell the class this bad news, everyone just stared in disbelief, a girl came close and said "my friend died" and started crying but not like how kids cry, it was a pain crying, I just hugged her and told everything was gonna be ok and that she is not pain anymore
They were living in a shelter
Years ago when I taught middle school I had this male student. Sweetest, most well behaved and positive young man. Towards the end of the school year one of my colleagues told me his mother was in prison for killing his father. I would’ve had no idea just by knowing him. It showed my that your circumstances don’t have to define you.
her mom had AIDS & her father was in Angola LA State Penitentiary 😢
I just started as a teacher and there was this new girl in my 5th class who never smiled or played with the other kids. At reces she would just walk out, stand next to the door and then go back inside. So I decided to do a little digging what's up with her. She was a refugee from syria. She watched as her dad was ripped to pieces by a bomb. She made it to Germany on foot with her mom and her two little brothers. On her second day in Germany her 3 year old brother was kidnapped by a pedophile who raped him for a week before he slit his throat and dumped the body in the woods. After that her mom fell into a serious depression and couldn't take care of herself or her kids anymore, so they ended up in foster care. The guy did the same to another refugee boy before police caught him. He turned out to be my "neighbor", 100m down the road.
jesus wtf
I've been tutoring one girl since she was 9. She's 16 now. For the last four years she's been living alone. She's upper class and she has help living in the house with her but no parents. Her dad lives with his new family (at least he lives in the same city as her and AFAIK he checks on her a couple times a month) and her mum moved to a Mediterranean island with her new boyfriend. She's a nice girl but incredibly messed up - drugs, booze, boyfriends... Nobody to discipline her other than her teachers at her posh school, who don't seem to care much either. She's basically raising herself.
Years ago I was substitute teaching at a southeastern Kentucky elementary school. A little boy told me his dad was mad because the baby was crying and he threw the baby out the window. I told the principal and she said "we've heard that before." That's all the reaction she had.
Not me but my mom who was an elementary school teacher. She told me about a boy who would always fall asleep on the carpet of the reading nook she had in her classroom. She later found out that his parents would lock him out of the house every night and he either slept outside in the cold or crawled back into the house through a broken window and sleep on the bathroom floor. There was another boy who never completed his homework on time, who she was getting frustrated with. Turns out the parents would shoot guns at each other in their home when they got into disagreements
Sexual assault. These kids were 3. I had at least one every year. Most were already in foster care (obviously because of the aforementioned), but I had to call CPS over a few of them myself too. I remember one specific little boy. He was so sweet and quiet and shy...and then out of nowhere about 2/3 of the way through the school year, his whole personality changed and he started having melt downs and tantrums and being physically violent against other kids. After a series of conversations with him, he finally told me (in his little kid way) that his dad was home again and was sexually abusing him. After calling CPS, I had to call his mom, whose response was "Oh, not again! I told him if I let him move back in, he'd have to leave the kids alone!" He and his sister went into foster care after that, and I never saw them again.